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The American Dream

Decent Essays

The Struggles of Attaining The American Dream The American Dream is something not only citizens of the United States strive to attain, but an ideal that immigrants and citizens of other countries come to America in search for. Many people, including immigrants associate the American dream with success and good opportunities such as having a well-paying job, owning a home, doing better in life than parents, as well as upward social mobility. The American dream, being a national ethos of the United States, is supposed to represent equal opportunity for everyone, regardless of race, skin color, or social class, to achieve success and prosperity through hard work in a society with few barriers. All of this is rooted in the Declaration of …show more content…

In the 1980s the distribution of income had 30 to 35% of national income going to the top 10% of earners. Since then, the percent of income going to the top 10% has increased to 50%, creating a huge disparity between high earners and low earners. Along with income inequality goes gross domestic product which is the total value of goods produced and services provided in a country during one year. Since the 1950s, the expansion of the gross domestic product has slowed. This means the economic pie is growing at a slower rate than it once did, so there’s less money to go around. Since the distribution of that growth is unequal, and more benefits are accruing to those at the top… those at the bottom, on the other hand, are not able to achieve as big a share as they once did. With their wages not growing and income not being spread out equally, those at the bottom are stuck at the same level as, or below, their parents preventing them from achieving the American dream. The gender pay gap between men and women and the ethnic wage gap are types of income inequalities that do not portray equal opportunities for all people. The gender pay gap in the United States is the ratio of female-to-male median yearly earnings among full-time, year-round workers. Although it may seem that citizens of the U.S. are paid equally, women are actually given unequal pay for equal work of men. Pay rates

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